An alumna of Clarion West Writer’s Workshop for science fiction and fantasy, I’ve written for markets like The New York Times and Time Out New York. Currently, I write about sci-fi for Blastr. I also edit the humor competition for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. You can follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and here at Forbes.

'Aliens: Colonial Marines' 'Kick Ass' Trailer Does Just That

Do you love killing hostile aliens bent on impregnating humans with their torso-ripping offspring? Me too! And it looks like Aliens: Colonial Marines will be giving me everything I’ve ever wanted on February 12, 2013. I know this because I’ve seen the trailer, below.

The trailer gives us action, a witty voice-over and (unlike the recent Elder Scrolls Online trailer), clear motivation: It’s us against them.

This voiceover and the action makes it clear that we’re highly powered, highly trained, individuals with more firepower than most small countries. I just want you to know that this won’t matter. I’ve played a few minutes of the game, and it’s hard as hell.

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Wow. This must be the most poisonously sarcastic article that I’ve ever read on a gaming website. I salute the deadpan delivery, and strive to achieve the same amount of wit in my own criticisms of others.

I actually laughed-out-loud during both the second and the third paragraphs after re-reading them following a truly depressing viewing what will surely be heralded as the most clichéd, epically unimaginative trailer of the entirety of 2013.

My own criticism is that it’s a truly terrible trailer, and that unless they were deliberately trying for a barely-humorous pastiche of clichéd quotes from popular movies, that voice-over is whatever the exact opposite of whatever witty is. (Witless.)

(Update: Even the Gearbox guys are trying to distance themselves from the trailer: https://twitter.com/mikeyface/status/294483511069523968)

You’ll have to excuse my post, it came out a little more venomous than I was intending. I was just hedging my own bets there, as last time I disagreed with a Forbes writer about this sort of thing, they brusquely informed myself and all of the other naysayers that the tone of the article was supposed to be “ironic”.

(Also, and while I am in no way suggesting any hints of impropriety or dishonestly on your behalf at all here, it does read a tiny bit like a press release, rather than a news article, if it’s not sarcasm.)

Taidan: If the article comes across as a press release, it’s because I’m really, truly excited. I’ve loved the Aliens series since I saw the first movie on videotape (I wasn’t allowed to see R-rated movies when Alien was released.) I liked the trailer.

But reading that the dialog in the trailer wasn’t going to be in-game… I can only assume it’s because the in-game dialog doesn’t do a straight-up job of describing the plot.

“I was just hedging my own bets there, as last time I disagreed with a Forbes writer about this sort of thing, they brusquely informed myself and all of the other naysayers that the tone of the article was supposed to be “ironic”.”

This is something that really strikes me as a negative aspect of the move to online editions. The fact that so many article authors can’t resist the comments section of their articles is interesting. And too often (at least from what I see) the comments offered up by online journalists are defensive or condescending in nature. That in your case the author felt compelled to point out the ironic tone of the article tells a lot about the quality of the writing in the piece. As great as the move is to end the practice of allowing anonymous commenters, I think it’s just as bad for authors to camp their articles for comments and engage in dialogues (or arguments/reprimands) just because they can.

I know we’re in an evolving media age, but from my perspective, many times it seems we’re worse off in these days of lapses in fact-checking and editing, as well as author “interaction” in comments sections.